Legislative functions in newly democratised countries: the use of parliamentary questions in Kenya and Zambia
- A large literature exists examining the functions of legislatures and the behaviour of MPs in established democracies. But little efforts have been made to observe how MPs behave in new democratic assemblies. This article seeks to address this shortcoming through an exploration of the use of parliamentary questions in two new democracies: Kenya and Zambia. Analysing an innovative dataset we offer one of the few attempts to directly measure legislative behaviour in new democracies. We examine how the factors found in the literature on parliamentary questions in liberal democracies react to this shift of context and to what degree legislatures in these countries fulfil their core functions. Results show that opposition MPs are not necessarily among the most active but that electoral incentives such as the margin by which MPs have won their seats or the number of voters they represent explain the use and content of parliamentary questions.
Author details: | Simone WegmannORCiDGND, Aurelien Evequoz |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1080/13572334.2019.1697057 |
ISSN: | 1357-2334 |
ISSN: | 1743-9337 |
Title of parent work (English): | The Journal of Legislative Studies |
Publisher: | Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group |
Place of publishing: | Abingdon |
Publication type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of first publication: | 2019 |
Publication year: | 2019 |
Release date: | 2020/10/30 |
Tag: | Parliamentary questions; Sub-Sahara Africa; new democracies; opposition |
Volume: | 25 |
Issue: | 4 |
Number of pages: | 23 |
First page: | 443 |
Last Page: | 465 |
Funding institution: | Swiss National Science FoundationSwiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) [P2GEP1_171916] |
Organizational units: | Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Wirtschaftswissenschaften |
DDC classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 32 Politikwissenschaft / 320 Politikwissenschaft |
Peer review: | Referiert |